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Ruins of the Earth cover art

Ruins of the Earth

By: Christopher Hopper,J. N. Chaney
Narrated by: R.C. Bray
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Publisher's Summary

A secret buried in the Antarctic. A puzzle unsolved for thousands of years.

And a Brooklyn-born master gunnery sergeant who's royally pissed that he has to babysit the researchers sent to figure it all out. Patrick "Wic" Finnegan's last op as a Marine Raider before retirement sends him to the frozen Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands. The only reason he's here? He owes a favor to an old friend, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. 

When Wic finally sees what the team has uncovered, he can't believe his eyes, nor is he prepared for the violence to come. Soon, the portal opens and unleashes a storm of unbridled fury upon humanity. 

From the Antarctic tundra to the streets of Manhattan, Wic and his team will be pushed to their limits as they fight to hold back Earth's ultimate threat. The odds are against them. Governments are toppling. And the Earth is falling into ruin. 

Join best-selling authors Christopher Hopper and J.N. Chaney on what audiences call a "nonstop, break-neck thrill ride into metaspace". For fans of District 9, Expeditionary Force, and Galaxy's Edge, this is one military sci-fi thriller you won't be able to put down, and the official beginning to the hit series Ruins of the Galaxy.

©2020 Variant Publications (P)2021 Podium Audio

What listeners say about Ruins of the Earth

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A video game that accidentally became a book

Let’s start with RC Bray’s earthy performance which, as always, rates highly. I had only one word to add the long list of words with more than three syllables that Mr Bray can’t pronounce. That word was “protractor.”

I thought I’d found another word but I had to widen my distaste to the whole of the US when, on checking, I found that Americans pronounce “cuneiform” as Bray did. We’ll just chalk that up to a lack of literary culture in the 19th century when US English was still in its formative years, a state of affairs that hasn’t much changed.

Oh, and Mr Bray can’t do John Cleese. It starts off well with an accent resembling the Arguments Clinic sketch but then veers around touching Danny Kaye, John Oliver, Oliver Twist, and Boston Irish along its path. We will forgive him that.

Calling this “military science fiction” is an insult to the genre of science fiction and to science everywhere. “American military fantasy” is a better description.

Let’s start with the implausible introduction on which the whole plot hangs. We are told that a master gunnery sergeant and a few Americans, Russians and Brits, armed only with peashooters, have been put in charge of Earth defences in a first contact scenario. And for some reason, scientists are running the show with occasional input from the CIA. The scientists are so naive that they fail to take even the most basic precautions against meeting nasty aliens. The obvious ensues.

Spoilers ahead...

We then meet aggressive robots, droids, and aliens. For some reason, and despite a mastery of quantum physics, star travel, sentient robots, and an excess of energy, there is a galactic market for human slaves. These slaves can serve as salty snacks for the aliens in a pinch, but they apparently have some other useful functions such that the aliens want to collect billions of them to sell. Business 101 SWAT analysis is definitely required.

Anyway, despite their advanced technology, the humans are fortunate that the aliens still like to fight up close and personal, using armour that can be breached with the right attitude using high-powered human weapons which thoughtful, ex-military preppers keep stored in their garages.

Much more useful is our hero’s fortuitous breaching of the alien’s weapons system thanks to the aliens’ neglect of basic firewall security and their thoughtfulness in providing an English speech interface to the weapon AI.

The rest is just a series of stretch targets for our lovable team of highly professional warriors. We get recycled plots from other stories including wry AIs (you have downloaded a John Cleese personality and the Disney movies but you don’t know what a flounder is?!) and Russian mafia markers (what, no pooch?!).

I listened to the end but have no desire to hear any more. My brain might die.

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15 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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rip-off of the xforce series

I would say it's basically a rip off of expeditionary force. sounds like skippy and Joe

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3 people found this helpful

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Another riveting franchise series

Another riveting franchise series, that i await with baited breath for the next book.

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3 people found this helpful

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fantastic mix of action and characters

if you love expeditionary force or the galaxys edge series you will love this. a good mix of humour and action that keeps your attention and makes you not want to put it away. as always R.C Bray is perfect and the best narrator for these types of Sci fi adventure books.

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2 people found this helpful

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Awsome Action

Great book, lots of action and comedy adds! Similar to the Stargate series so Awsome listening! Great voice for reading Audio books!

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The most hilarious Earth Invasion ever

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Very original and so funny. Lost count of how many times I laughed Have an entirely new respect for Flounder now. The action just kept rolling nice not to have to listen to fillers which seem to be common these days

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Wow

Wow good solid story love the banter between characters the flow of the story awsome a must read buying the rest of series asap

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Another annoying British AI?

Enjoyed the story, but when it comes to annoying British AI comic relief characters, AL from the Ryan-verse series stands tall. Sorry Sir Chuck.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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Dumb ass wick

I love the stories I just can’t stand the dumbness of the main characters. This with Guy is as dumb as the expeditionary main character.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling

Great story hard to put down and as always fantastic narration by RC Bray. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

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